Simon & Garfunkel Up Close, 1967
The Folk Duo’s Concert at the University of Detroit
As a music journalist since the 1970s, I’ve attended more concerts than I can remember. Some of them, though, have etched indelible memories and continue to inspire. Here’s one of my favorites.
When I was 14, we lived near the towering Uniroyal tire alongside I-94 on the way into Detroit. Both of my parents had taught at the University of Detroit in the late 1940s, and one of my mother’s college colleagues lived across the street. One cold January afternoon she knocked on our door and asked if we wanted three tickets to see Simon & Garfunkel, courtesy of a friend who ran U-D’s Town and Gown series.
Even though the concert was on a Sunday night and we had school the next day, I talked my mom into taking my sister Nancy and me to the show. No small feat, since my mom’s musical tastes ran from Broadway soundtracks to, uh, Broadway soundtracks.
The concert, held in U-D’s Memorial Building on January 15, was the third stop on the duo’s 1967 tour. Two of our neighbor’s daughters drove over with us. When we checked in at the box office, we discovered our tickets were front row center, with backstage passes. Hip and respectful, the gathering crowd seemed more beatnik-folkie than hippie. We settled into our seats, the lights dimmed, and Simon & Garfunkel walked into a spotlight to enthusiastic applause. Their microphones were less than ten feet from my chair. Art Garfunkel, dressed in brown leather pants and a rust turtleneck, sat upon a stool. Paul Simon, in turtleneck and jeans, stood as he quickly checked the tuning on a Martin 6-string guitar so polished that it reflected the spotlight’s glare into our eyes. His string-ends looked like little butterflies perched atop the tuning pegs. A 12-string acoustic guitar stood on a stand nearby.
In order, the duo performed breathtaking renditions of “Scarborough Fair/Canticle,” “Cloudy,” “April Come She Will,” “He Was My Brother,” “Bleeker Street,” the dramatic “A Poem on the Underground Wall,” “Patterns,” “Richard Cory,” “I Am a Rock,” “The Dangling Conversation,” “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy),” a note-perfect “Anji,” “Homeward Bound,” “The Sound of Silence,” and a percussive, string-slapping version of “Mrs. Robinson” similar to the take later released on The Graduate soundtrack. For the encore, Simon switched to his 12-string guitar for a thrilling “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her,” Garfunkel’s soaring voice sending chills through the audience. A stunning performance.
After the show, an usher led the five of us down a corridor backstage and asked us to wait. No one else was there. About twenty minutes later Art Garfunkel came out and warmly greeted each of us. A spent-looking Paul Simon showed up a few minutes later. I remember him telling me that Davey Graham had written the “Anji” instrumental, that he liked Martin guitars the best, and that he had a brother, Eddie, who also played guitar. My mom, with typical wry humor, asked Garfunkel if his leather pants were hot under the stage lights. As we were leaving, the musicians pulled posters off the walls and autographed them for us.
The next day, we bought all three of the recently released Simon & Garfunkel albums – Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.; Sounds of Silence; and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. I’ve enjoyed their music ever since. I’m also grateful that the concert and these LPs inspired my mother to expand her musical taste to the point that that summer she had high praise for Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love.”
Although I had no way of knowing it at the time, seeing that 1967 Simon & Garfunkel concert set a pattern that would later repeat itself countless times throughout my life: Watch a musical performance, take notes, and go backstage to talk to the musicians.
Coincidentally, something else happened in popular music while we attended the concert: The Rolling Stones performed “Let’s Spend the Night Together” on The Ed Sullivan Show, changing the song’s refrain to “let’s spend some time together” to accommodate censors. Six months later, Simon & Garfunkel, along with Jimi Hendrix, The Who, the Grateful Dead, and many others, played the Monterey International Pop Music Festival, inaugurating the Summer of Love.
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©2023 Jas Obrecht. All right reserved.